the ISFC39 Proceedings - International Systemic-Functional ...

to boldly proceed ...mood in which the verb would be conjugated. Both instructors’ preliminary explanations arejuxtaposed in Table 3. Teacher texts are translated from Spanish.Both Sra. Fuente and Sr. Galvez used principles (SMALL CAPS) in their explanations in orderto explicitly state what ISCs are used for. While Sra. Fuente’s explanation lasted a brief 35seconds, Sr. Galvez’s explanation using VoIP was longer, (1 minute, 23 seconds), andincluded various pauses. Sra. Fuente used facial expressions and hand movements toemphasize her meanings, while Sr. Galvez used other means, such as the arrow tool in AdobeConnect to keep the pace and make reference to different examples in the PowerPoint.Both teachers followed their explanations with a question-and-answer session. In the hybridcourse, Sr. Galvez nominated students to give their answers and in the traditional blendedcourse, Sra. Fuente asked for volunteers. Finally, students from both courses struggled to usenumber and gender correctly in Spanish.Sra. Fuente (Traditional blended)Very good, let’s continue guys, indirect commands.WE USE THE INDIRECT COMMANDS WHEN ONEPERSON TELLS ANOTHER PERSON WHAT A THIRDPERSON SHOULD DO. Let Tomás do it [it: masc].Let Tomás do it [it: fem]. ALSO, WE USE THEINDIRECT COMMANDS TO EXPRESS GOOD WISHES.‘Get well.’ ‘Have fun.’ Okay?Sr. Galvez (Hybrid)Now we pass to the indirect commands. THEINDIRECT COMMANDS IS A WAY TO DO THESUBJUNCTIVE, subjunctive, your favorite topic. Theeasiest in the world. Subjunctive [typing in the chatbox] we will do it every day from tomorrowonward…WHEN ONE PERSON TELLS ANOTHER ATHREE SHOULD DO. I TELL SOMEONE WHAT ATHIRD HAS TO DO…AND ALSO THEY AREEXPRESSIONS.Table 3. A juxtaposition of Sra. Fuente and Sr. Galvez’s Initial Explanation of ISCs.After the homework had been checked, one student from Sra. Fuente’s section, Tom, asked aquestion, stating that he thought the direct object pronoun should have been used instead ofthe indirect object pronoun. This gave Sra. Fuente the opportunity to use evaluation(underlined) to pronounce his alternative as incorrect. She the used classification (boldface)in order to better explain the difference between direct and indirect objects, as illustratedbelow 12 . While the original text is a mixture of Spanish and English, the Spanish has beentranslated.Tom (T): Now number five. Wouldn’t it be ‘let him help TO THEM*’, cuz ‘TO the clients’?Sra. Fuente: THEM**, no, the sales representative helps the clients. In this case, ‘the clients’ is the directobject. Okay? Okay? The sales representative helps the clients.T: OkaySra. F: ‘The clients’ is the direct object, it’s not indirect. Let him (the sales rep) help him (the client). Yes,the action is direct, that’s why it’s ‘him’**. Okay?T: I got it.This interaction between Tom and Sra. Fuente offered an opportunity to explore one of thekey differences between the online and F2F tasks, namely the tendency of students in the F2Fclasses to ask the teacher questions in order to clarify their doubts about the contents coveredin the homework. In contrast, during the two weeks of online observations, never once did astudent in an online class ask a question. During the interviews, several students commentedthat this was because they did not feel comfortable asking questions online. Furthermore,these students said that the F2F mode offered more opportunities for understanding the12 *indirect object pronoun / **direct object pronoun / LARGE CAPS indicate heightened intonation.66